Partial Sequence, Rings and Totality 2 - 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

The partial phases where shot with a Vixen ED100SF refractor, a Thousand Oaks solar filter (Type 3), and a Nikon D810 DSLR.

The diamond ring images where produced with the same telescope and camera, but with the solar filter removed.

The diamond ring effect is seen just before and after the total phase of the eclipse (aka totality).
The crescent Sun is then a short, brilliant segment along one edge of the Moon (i.e., the diamond) seen as a dark silhouette and surrounded by the solar corona (i.e., the ring).

The image of the corona was produced with an Astro-Physics 105EDT refractor and a Nikon D800 DSLR.
The corona is a composite of 57 separate exposures (1/2000 to 2 seconds) combined and processed using Photoshop CC 2017 and Photomatix Pro 6.

The Moon appears darker than the sky because of the huge contrast between the Moon's disk and the very bright inner corona adjacent to the Moon.
I've tried to preserve this visual impression in this image.
A custom Curves layer was used to approximated the color to the dark blue sky during totality.